Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Special report: Vanishing wetlands

Builders aim at wetland rules

The state asks to take over federal permitting to destroy wetlands, which would benefit developers.

By CRAIG PITTMAN AND MATTHEW WAITE
Published May 3, 2006

In a move long sought by developers, Florida's top environmental regulator has asked the federal government to determine what the state must do to take authority over wetlands protection.

Colleen Castille, secretary of the state Department of Environmental Protection, asked Environmental Protection Agency regional director Jimmy Palmer in a letter April 26 for "advice on what further actions the state would need to take" to assume all responsibility for issuing permits to destroy wetlands.

Getting the state to take charge is "the Holy Grail" for developers, Florida Home Builders Association lobbyist Frank Matthews said last year.

That's because the state approves more wetlands destruction at a faster pace than the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Meanwhile, developers are trying to get amendments through the waning days of the 2006 Legislature to override tough wetlands rules in Hillsborough County.

"It's like a shell game to find where these things are going to show up," said Rick Tschantz, general counsel for the Hillsborough County Environmental Protection Commission.

To destroy wetlands, Florida developers must get permits from both state and federal agencies.

Between 1999 and 2003, the Army Corps of Engineers approved 12,000 permits in Florida and rejected one. It approves more in Florida than in any other state.

During the past 15 years, when federal policy called for no net loss of wetlands, Florida has lost about 84,000 acres of wetlands to houses, malls and other development, a St. Petersburg Times analysis found. But the corps has unlimited time to make a decision, while state regulators have only 90 days. Last year, the corps rejected six permits that the state approved.

State Rep. Trudi Williams, R-Fort Myers, sponsored a bill calling for the state to take over issuing federal permits for projects of 10 acres or less, nearly half of all federal permits.

But Williams' bill is stuck in committee, so she attached it to another bill and lowered the threshold to 5 acres. But DEP officials said it's unnecessary and point to Castille's letter as proof.

Another proposal, attached to an antilitter bill due for a House vote as early as today, originally said counties must follow the state's practice of letting developers choose how they'll make up for destroying wetlands.

The bill was aimed at Hillsborough and Martin counties, which have tougher rules than the state.

For 20 years, Hillsborough has said no wetlands can be destroyed unless there is a documented need to do so to use the property, said Danny Alberdi, Hillsborough's wetlands manager. Only then can county officials consider how developers can make up for the damage, known as "mitigation."

State officials take the opposite approach, letting developers propose mitigation that then becomes justification for approving the permit to wipe out the wetlands, Alberdi said.

Numerous scientific studies, including a 2001 study by an arm of the National Academies of Science, say mitigation routinely fails to provide the same benefits of the wetlands they replaced.

[Last modified December 13, 2006, 17:52:56]